78 



injurious species to cultivated sunflowers, and as the ants encourage 

 them, take good care of them, and place them upon fresh leaves, the 

 ants themselves become thus indirect enemies to the plant. 



A kerosene emulsion spray is of course a perfectly efficient remedy. 



FUMIGATION WITH CARBON BISULPHIDE. 



By W. E. Hinds. 



IT. S. Department op Agriculture, 



Division of Entomology, 

 Washington, D. C, July 15, 1901. 

 Sir: I submit herewith a report upon the use of carbon bisulphide in the fumiga- 

 tion of a large wholesale and retail tobacco establishment in Washington, D. C, 

 together with some details of caution in its use and a few observations concerning the 

 effects of this insecticide upon the user, which I have not found published hitherto. 



Kespectfully, 



W. E. Hinds. 

 Dr. L. O. Howard, 



Chief of Division of Entomology. 



On the 13th of July, in accordance with your instructions, I visited 

 this establishment and made a general investigation. The business is 

 confined to what is practically one large room, having about 3,000 

 square feet on the ground floor and a cubical content of about 75,000 

 feet. At a height of about 12 feet a wide galleiy runs around three 

 sides of the room. This gallery, as well as the main floor, is filled with 

 tobacco of various grades and styles of manufacture and in all kinds of 

 packages. Altogether the stock consisted approximately of 800,000 

 cigars, 100,000 cigarettes, and 37,000 pounds of smoking and chewing 

 tobacco. Only a very small portion of the stock showed anj signs of 

 infestation, and this was stored partly in the gallery and partly on the 

 main floor. Several kinds of high-grade smoking mixtures (obtained 

 mostly, as the proprietor informed me, from the same factory) were 

 being seriously damaged by the cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne 

 Fab. It was stated that the beetles seldom appeared till the stock was 

 about two }^ears old, and the proprietors believed that the eggs were 

 in the tobacco when it was packed, but that they remained dormant for 

 a }^ear or so more, developing abundantly toward the end of the second 

 } T ear. This, of course, is not the case. However, it ma} T be possible 

 that some stock was infested at the factory and the beetles subse- 

 quently passed through several generations in the package before their 

 presence was discovered, and it seems very probable, since the beetles 

 have been quite abundant in the store for at least the past two years, 

 that stock originally clean may have become infested in the store dur- 

 ing the two } r ears in which it was more or less exposed to infestation. 



A large number of the beetles were noticed in the store last } T ear, 

 and a small portion of the stock was at that time treated with CS 2 ; but 

 the fact that some of the old stock is now badly infested makes it 

 appear very probable either that the first treatment was not sufficiently 



